Hi. I was running a MacBook but got fed up of running games in a windows partition using boot camp so decided to get myself a windows computer.
Now, by coincidence, I noticed a computer magazine in the shops which had an article on how to build your own computer.
I read that article and was hooked. It seemed so simple, like lego in fact; this part goes there, this part connects here etc, etc and before you know it, bob's your uncle, you've built a computer.
So I dived right in. I ordered the parts over about 2 months but when I'd assembled them, arrgghhh, the system didn't post at all. It kept turning on and off in a loop. (I posted in another section for some help with that).
Anyway, I eventually called the company and after trying all their suggestions returned the motherboard, PSU, CPU and RAM. They tested it all and it turned out to be a faulty motherboard which they replaced.
Once I got it all back I reassembled my computer, turned it on and yee haaa, it posted.
It took me about hour and a half to install the OS and all the drivers and I haven't looked back since. Touch wood, not had a single problem yet, as I'm selling my MacBook to a friend at work come Monday.
Here's the specs -
Antec 300 case
Gigabyte P55-US3L mobo
Intel i5-750
Corsair vx550w PSU
Corsair (2x1gb) TwinX XMS3 DDR3
Samsung 500gb HD502HJ SpinPoint F3
LiteOn IHAP122-19 22x DVD+and-, 8xDVD
Nvidia Geforce GTX285 1GB
LogiTech EX100 wireless USB Keyboard
22" Digimate - DGM L-2262WD Widescreen LCD
LogiTech USB wireless mouse.
I've bench-tested it using CrystalMark2004 and posted it here -
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,78099.0.html(and you'll have to scroll to my post in there with the others)
Once I can get some pictures I'll post them but in truth it's nothing special to look at as I simply went for a very, very cheap case so it's just a black box to look at